There are no tidy rules for working through grief. Dr.
Larry Hawk, whose sister Kathy Nicosia was a flight attendant aboard
American Airlines Flight 11, grieved through working. In the days
following the crashes, Hawk manned one of the hundreds of triage units
along Manhattan's West Side Highway. But his unit was unique. It was
equipped with miniature IV bags, water bowls and dog food to rescue
and revive the thousands of pets stranded in crumbling and evacuated
buildings in lower Manhattan.

The president and CEO of the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Hawk quickly mobilized a team of
veterinarians, police officers and pet psychologists to escort pet
owners through the dead zone to their former apartments. Wearing a green
A.S.P.C.A. T-shirt over his plaid shirt and chinos, Hawk listened to
their stories and calmly vowed to help.

He was on hand to reunite Leslie Long and Doug Murray
with their two cats, which had survived for 48 hours on little more than
toilet water. Their apartment was coated with several inches of filth,
with only a trail of paw prints peeking through the dust.

Hawk also worried about the welfare of the police dogs
sifting through the rubble. Many of their paws were torn on jagged
wreckage, and rescuers had begun wrapping their legs in flimsy burlap.
Hawk and his colleagues started a collection drive for protective doggie
booties. In a week like this, some might find it strangely incidental to
pay so much attention to pets.

Hawk disagreed. "I spend my life teaching humane
principles. If we learn how to be more humane to animals, we hope it
will rub off on people," Hawk said. He paused.
"What happened to my sister was very inhumane.

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